2024 IPA Prix Voltaire awarded to Samir Mansour with Special Award for Victoria Amelina

The ceremony also paid tribute to the first laureate of the then IPA Freedom to Publish Prize, Shahla Lahiji (Iran), who passed away in February 2024, and 2009 laureate Sihem Bensedrine (Tunisia), who was arrested earlier this year and remains in detention.

Kristenn Einarsson, Chair of the IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee said: Before, during, and post conflict, the role of publishers is monumental. Peace is only possible in a society that welcomes education, values the exchange of diverse ideas, and promotes innovation, conversation, and compromise. This is why books as builders of empathy and sources of cultural knowledge, and the publishers that produce and protect them, serve as cultural institutions that promote peace and progress. Authoritarian governments and other powerful entities often tighten control over information during conflicts, imposing strict censorship and disseminating propaganda. Publishers not only face personal destruction in conflict, but may also face threats such as violence, imprisonment, or even death for publishing materials that are perceived as controversial. Those committed to freedom of expression have navigated these treacherous waters, often working clandestinely, in exile, or even in a context of war, in order to ensure the dissemination of knowledge.

Accepting the 2024 IPA Prix Voltaire Samir Mansour delivered a video address. He said: I would like to thank everyone who supported the IPA Prix Voltaire and the International Publishers Association. In 2021 my bookshop was completely destroyed. It was rebuilt in 2022. During the current war, the bookshop was also destroyed again and the second branch of the library bookshop was destroyed. However, I am still continuing my work which I grew up with and was raised in since my childhood. I am still publishing despite being on the Gaza strip. God willing us, we will continue to publish and print, no matter how difficult the circumstances we are living today. We will continue.

Karine Pansa, President of the IPA said: Our two laureates this year as well as our shortlist encourage us to think about the role of publishing for peace and the relationship between conflict and publishing. This year’s Prix Voltaire laureate and nominees embody publishers’ efforts to promote books and the dissemination of information to prevent conflict and foster peace, even while facing extreme dangers themselves. Their commitment to publishing and the dissemination of knowledge becomes a beacon of hope amidst immense devastation.

The ceremony’s tribute to Victoria Amelina used footage from the 2023 IPA Prix Voltaire ceremony where Amelina had said: I am a Ukrainian writer speaking on behalf of my colleague Volodymyr Vakulenko who, unlike me, didn’t survive another attempt of the Russian Empire to erase Ukrainian identity. The Ukrainian literary community is grateful for the award. This award is unique, meaningful, and moving to us, partly because no one out of hundreds of other Ukrainian writers who, like Vakulenko, were murdered throughout Ukrainian history ever received such an international award posthumously. I am sure that Volodymyr Vakulenko would like to dedicate this award to them too.

The Special Award will be presented to Oleksandra Matviichuk, CEO of the Center for Civil Liberties (Nobel Peace Prize 2022) on the 2nd day of the Congress on the occasion of her keynote speech.

Photos of the laureates and the ceremony are available here.

About the 2024 IPA Prix Voltaire

Prix Voltaire nominees are publishers – individuals, groups or organizations – who have typically published controversial works amid pressure, threats, intimidation or harassment, be it from governments, other authorities or private interests. Alternatively, they may be publishers with a distinguished record of upholding the values of freedom to publish and freedom of expression. For the purposes of the IPA Prix Voltaire, the definition of ‘publisher’ is an individual, collective or organization that provides others with the means to share their ideas in written form, including via digital platforms.

The IPA Prix Voltaire, which comes with a CHF 10,000 prize, is made possible by generous contributions from sponsors, all of which are publishing houses and organizations that share the values that the IPA Prix Voltaire recognizes.

2024 IPA Prix Voltaire laureate, the Samir Mansour Bookshop for Printing and Publishing has been a critical part of the local community in Gaza, publishing the works of Palestinian authors and housing thousands of books in various languages. Destroyed in 2021 and rebuilt through community efforts, the bookshop has once again been a victim of the Israel-Hamas conflict. The bookshop has continued its efforts to bring books to Palestinian youth, visiting evacuation centres and providing books and gift packages to displaced children.

2024 IPA Prix Voltaire Special Award laureate, Victoria Amelina, put her fiction writing on hold during the war in Ukraine to become a war crimes investigator. She gathered testimonies from survivors and witnesses of the war, also ensuring to document the killings of fellow writers, including last year’s Special Award recipient, Volodymyr Vakulenko. Victoria found Vakulenko’s occupation diaries hidden in his family’s garden and played a key role in bringing them to publication this year. Amelina had attended the 2023 Prix Voltaire ceremony to receive the Special Award on his behalf.

The 2024 IPA Prix Voltaire shortlist was announced at the World Expression Forum (WEXFO) in Lillehammer, Norway on 27 May 2024:

• Aslambek Ezhaev, Ummah Publishing, Russia
• Dušan Gojkov, Balkan Literary Herald, Serbia
• Andrej Januskevic, Andrej Januskevic Publishing, Belarus
• Osman Kavala, Turkey
• Samir Mansour, Samir Mansour Bookshop for Printing and Publishing, Palestine

Aslambek Ezhaev, of Ummah Publishing from Russia, has worked to amplify the voices of marginalized or oppressed groups, in a tenuous post-conflict environment. His efforts to protect the existence of culturally significant Russian Islamic literature promotes diversity in the Russian literary space, and inspires a more tolerant society, even after extreme conflict such as the Russian-Chechen War.

Dušan Gojkov, of the Balkan Literary Herald from Serbia, has faced a similar environment in a post-conflict context. Political leaders’ ongoing stigmatization of independent voices and the state’s lack of action to prevent or penalize such behaviours have created a climate of fear, anxiety, and insecurity. Mr Gojkov works to limit censorship, violence, and death threats towards writers and academics while also working to mitigate rising tensions in the delicate environment of the post-conflict Balkans.

Andrej Januskevic of the Januskevic Publishing House in Belarus has advocated for Belarusian publishing and democracy in the face of extreme government repression and censorship from the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war. Forced to flee to Poland after arbitrary detentions and persecution, Mr Januskevic has promised to continue publishing, opening a bookstore in Warsaw.

Osman Kavala from Turkey advocates for the free access to information and promotes peace through his efforts to facilitate cultural exchange, human rights, and democratic values, while also advocating for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.

The current sponsors of the IPA Prix Voltaire are, in alphabetical order:

• Albert Bonniers Förlag (Sweden)
• Holtzbrinck (Germany)
• Penguin Random House
• C.H.Beck (Germany)

Previous laureates of the Prix Voltaire are:

About the Prix Voltaire Special Award

Periodically, the IPA Freedom to Publish Committee may confer the Prix Voltaire Special Award, a posthumous honour for individuals who have died recently for exercising their freedom of expression. The aim of the award is to give visibility to the laureate’s exceptional engagement for freedom of expression and expose how he or she was silenced. The award should promote the laureate’s legacy and support their family, friends and supporters, if necessary, by helping to ensure that the laureate and their case are not forgotten.

Recipients have typically demonstrated a courageous commitment to freedom of speech through lives spent writing, publishing, or in activism, and have been murdered, put to death, or lost their life in prison.